Relations between directors on the board of the Lake of Bays Association (LOBA) and the Mayor of Lake of Bays have arguably never been cooler.
In correspondence obtained by Doppler, Lake of Bays Mayor Bob Young, still reeling over the amount of money LOBA has spent defending what he considers a frivolous stance, goes as far as calling on the resignation of three of its directors.
LOBA appealed an Official Plan (OP) amendment proposed by the Township of Lake of Bays at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) and lost. The association was appealing a change to the Township’s OP to reduce the required size of waterfront back lots from ten acres to seven. You can find that story here.
The appeal cost LOBA’s membership $83,000 — 27 per cent more than it had originally anticipated, on top of the estimated $58,000 it cost the District of Muskoka (which approves changes to local municipal Official Plans) to defend the OP amendment. In a terse letter Young demands the resignation of LOBA’s president and two of its directors.
“I believe that you three have misled and misguided the membership of the Association in this matter. First, you never gave the membership a vote as to whether they wished to enter this appeal (you hired your lawyer & planner, then advised your membership and finally asked if there were any questions). You grossly overstated your optimism for victory and you grossly overstated the potential damage of the OP language,” states Young in a letter dated November 23, 2017, which he signs as a resident of Lake of Bays.
He further states that the actions of LOBA’s directors have likely damaged the Association’s reputation and relationship with both the Township of Lake of Bays and the District.
“Your mandate and raison d’etre is to represent the members and their interests in front of the Township of Lake of Bays and the District of Muskoka (DMM). If those relationships are destroyed or, at best, severely damaged, then how can you function as a lobbying body – who will listen?”
In his letter, Young also states the association is not the same as that of his youth.
You appear to represent only waterfront cottage owners (the majority of whom are seasonal), concentrated down in the southwest corner of the Lake of Bays. This is not the Lake of Bays Association of my youth and I would guess that it is not the Lake of Bays Association of much of the membership. Lake of Bays Mayor Bob Young
“Therefore I strongly urge you three to do the honourable, moral and proper thing and resign immediately. LOBA has a lot of rebuilding to do and it will not be able to do so under your leadership,” concludes Young in his letter.
A response to Young’s letter by LOBA President Ian Beverley states that LOBA’s mandate is to “promote, sustain and enhance a clean and healthy natural environment, a well serviced community and a safe and peaceful Lake of Bays. The actions of our Board in this matter have been consistent with this mandate and were taken with proper authority,” he maintains.
The reasons for our appeal of this matter were substantive and are available in the materials on our website. In essence, they amount to the fact that the Township Council acted without proper planning justification and contrary to provincial policy to change the back lot standards. As well Council’s decision was contrary to the planning advice they received from their external planning consultant, their own planning staff, the planning staff of the District and the Planner from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.LOBA President Ian Beverley
“Those facts are not disputed in the decision of the OMB member and, had we chosen to appeal this matter, we are advised that we would have been successful on the basis of these and other arguments,” according to Beverley.
He furthers that LOBA is involved in a broad range of initiatives “that benefit our whole community. These programs are too numerous to mention, but include support for library, health and fire services, annual water quality testing, promoting boating safety, funding natural shoreline restoration and supporting research into the effects of climate change on our local environment.”
Beverley states that LOBA will always seek to have constructive relationships with District and Township representatives “that share the values of our association. We will also support initiatives that are consistent with those values. In choosing to appeal the back lot standards, LOBA was following the legal, statutory processes that are available to all residents who oppose planning decisions,” he concluded.
You can find LOBA’s latest post on the issue on its website by clicking here.
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My only comment does not apply to the expenditure of LOBA and the DMM. I merely wish to state that the OMB does not deal with any cases which it considers to be “frivolous”.
Note to Readers,
I wrote this letter not in my capacity as Mayor of Lake of Bays but as a resident of the Lake.
I wholeheartedly agree with LOBA and disagree with the Mayor. Had the Mayor and the Council followed their own professional advisors, LOBA would not have had to spend the money that it did. I call for the resignation of the Mayor.
I agree with Mayor Young the three should resign they wasted valuable funds and they should have been made to conduct a vote where this much money was an issue. I am sure there were a lot of members who knew nothing about it. Sometimes LOBA appear to make decisions for the group as a whole but members do not seem to know what was taking place, I remember being at a council meeting once where one of the members came forward and was embarrassed to learn it was LOBA who did something.